News

Twenty-five year old Sam Narroway was convicted and fined $15,000 (plus costs) in the Industrial Court for pleading guilty to impersonating a workplace safety inspector. The court heard that Mr Narroway had gained access to three businesses, two homes and made false statements to police late 2013 and early 2014.

Magistrate Stephen Lieschke ruled that his offences “involved risk to the community, damage to the credibility of SafeWork SA and to professional work health safety consultants”.

Narroway had previously been convicted for fraud and dishonesty offences between 2008 and 2012.

SafeWork SA Executive Director, Ms Marie Boland said that “SafeWork SA Inspectors, readily identifiable by their uniform, always carry authorised photo identification and provide their full name on arrival at any worksite.”

The Globally Harmonised System of classification and labelling of chemicals (GHS) becomes mandatory under the Work Health and Safety Regulations 2012 from 1 st of January 2017. The GHS was designed as a universal standard for labelling chemicals to identify requirements to allow for the safe transport and handling of substances and to improve knowledge of the health hazards from chemicals.

If you have hazardous chemicals in your workplace, you will need to:

Ensure safe systems of work are in place to manage the risks associated with hazardous and dangerous chemicals in the workplace

Regularly review your chemical inventory and dispose of chemicals which are out of date or are no longer used.

Talk to your chemical suppliers to check you will receive GHS labelled stock and up-to- date

safety data sheets.

It is okay to keep using, handling and storing hazardous chemicals labelled in accordance with a previous labelling code in your own workplace if the product was supplied to you before 1 January 2017.

If you have any concerns about chemical handling, storage, or labelling requirements under the GHS, Adelaide OHS Consultants is able to provide advice.

For more information about GHS requirements, feel free to contact our office on 8296 4405 for free advice.

Media Release November 2015:

Work Health Safety Regulation Revoked by SA Govt.

The South Australian Government has revoked Regulation 348 of the Work Health and Safety Regulations 2012. The regulation relates to the requirement for a person to notify the regulator (SafeWork SA) if they exceeded a manifest quantity of a hazardous substance.

The regulation was to come into effect as of January 1 2016, however, a recent determination by SafeWork SA advised that as a result of a risk assessment considering public safety, it has concluded that the state’s existing dangerous substances licensing system provided a higher standard of safety management than the Regulation 348 would provide.

Based on this determination, the existing licensing requirements for keeping, handling or transporting dangerous substances as set out in the existing Dangerous Substances Act 1979 (and the related Dangerous Substances Regulations 2002 & Dangerous Goods Transport Regulations 2008) will continue unchanged.

SafeWork SA advises that it is otherwise ‘business as usual’ for dangerous substances, and that it will continue to assess applications for licences to store these substances, ensuring that applicants meet the necessary safety requirements.

Businesses are reminded that the remaining provisions of the Work Health Safety Regulations 2012 will continue to apply, including the Approved Code of Practice for Labelling of Workplace Hazardous Chemicals.

As of the first of January 2016, a person who stores certain quantities of hazardous chemicals at their workplace will be required to ensure a manifest (a document that records the types, quantities and locations of each chemical) is available for emergency services officers to use in the event of an incident.

The State Government has advised that it will review the dangerous substances legislation and licensing requirements in 2016.

For more information about the Work Health Safety Regulation Revoked by SA Govt., feel free to contact Adelaide OHS Consultants on 8296 4405.